Friday, April 23, 2010

Arizona Senate Bill 1070

I just posted a comment to a friend's Facebook status about Arizona's Senate Bill 1070. After I submitted my stream-of-consciousness remarks, I decided I'd share them here too. The summary? Stop being ignorant! Learn something about immigration law before you start mouthing off about it! It would also be nice if you weren't a racist drowning in patriotic rhetoric, but I suppose I can't ask for too much.

My comment:

What I hate - and this is NOT just Arizona, or even just Southwest - is the sheer amount of ignorance equating "immigrant! illegal!" and "Mexican." Besides the obvious lack of understanding of immigration law, there is a serious lack of global understanding revealed. The media and government do absolutely nothing to help with this; our immigration law and public debate about it have ALWAYS been racist. (See: Chinese exclusion laws, WWII Japanese and Germans, etc.) There are thousands and thousands of undocumented Canadians, Italians, eastern Europeans etc in the U.S., who are "flouting the law" just as much w/o being noticed by the hypocrites. And if one more person tells me a Mexican should "immigrate legally" or "do it the right way" I want to smack them. Not everyone wants to immigrate. Contrary to what the jingoistic god-bless-America contingent preaches, not everyone wants to move here and start waving the stars and stripes. AND there is no way for most Mexicans to enter the country legally! There is no line! You have to have family or employment here! I really hate hearing people (not you) talk about this because there is SO MUCH IGNORANCE about the basic FACTS.

2 comments:

Kim Diaz said...

As the great Marga Gomez once quoted a guest on a Jerry Springer-type show: " 'I think all the Puerto Ricans should go back to Mexico!' SHE said it! I can't make up shit like that!"

linda said...

Recently in a Midwest state I had to actually stop in the middle of a conversation with an educated, humanist, liberal because of references to "the Mexicans" when talking about the Spanish-speaking population of a city. It was just easier for me that day. On other days (= today) I get absolutely no work done for three hours because I am having fits about 1. Arizona's senate 2.People who think they "know better than Arizona" but are equally racist 3.The entire INA. I die. I die slowly.